Rosa: A Wangxian Reincarnation Story

Care

The team was in shock. If it was true, they had been within a hair of killing their Sect Master. They were rocked to the very centers of their golden cores. The silence was heavy. They could barely look at one another because one would always see his or her guilt written on their feature. Nobody could stem Ming's gut-wrenching sobs. They were endless. If Lan XiChen never rose to fly again, she would never cease to blame herself. Finally, Wei Ying strode over and lifted her from the floor. He placed his hands on her shoulders and shook her, hard.

"General Ming!" He shouted. "Is this helping him? Lay the wife aside. We need the fighter back and this is not time to fall apart."

Ming swallowed. Nodded. Ying was glad to see a tiny soldierly gleam in her raptor's eyes, small but there. Good. 

"First, let's see how far he is willing to go. We know he really does not want Lan XiChen's death. He wants to torture him. Let us be frank, he wants to sexually brutalize him again. Lan XiChen knows this too, so he is now praying we condemn him, and his end will be quick.  If we do say death, then Xue Yang will expose himself because he will choose to reduce our sentencing to life. He will attempt to send us away for various reasons and secrete Lan XiChen to another location. He can always seek Yenay out later."

Nie spoke up. "So, we will have to abandon him to save him."

"In a manner of speaking, yes."

"This will be agonizing for him."

"Yes." He turned to Ming and Lan Zhan. "You are his dearest persons. And you are devoted to him like none of us can be. Can you go through with this?"

There was no hesitation when they answered. "Yes!!"

 "We have been holed up here long enough. We need to rejoin them. Lan Zhan, you must take the lead. After we condemn him, when we leave the cell tonight, come to our room. I need to show you how we not only win this fight, but how we remove Xue Yang from our lives, this one and all others, forever. No questions for now. Later."

**********

They entered the room and Xue Yang rose to greet them. "Welcome back. I hope you reached a decision with no acrimony among you?"

"We did, Lan XiChen." Lan Zhan said as he bowed before the imposter. "It is unanimous."

"And?" 

" We vote for death. We hope to be merciful, according to our traditions."

XiChen, still chained to the pillar, blanched as he searched his families features. They looked directly in his face and he sensed their determination, and he felt relief. At least dead, those cold hands would be gone from his life. The hideous grinding down and debasement that had been looming in front of him, the invasion of his body, the degradation would not happen, at least for long.

"Of course...of course..." Xue Yang was not very current about Sect Rules and  they were counting on that. 

"First, there will be the required week in which he will be given the chance for self-examination and setting his soul to right. During that time, you have the option of judging his sincerity and either keeping the sentence or mitigating some aspects of it.

Also ,as you know, the conditions he is living in is not acceptable for Lan prisoners". Lan Zhan was extremely nervous about this demand. He had to be convincing.

"Unfortunately, we did not expect this assault on the convoy, so we did not have the right holding cell prepared. This must be something we change immediately. This was my responsibility and I failed."

Xue Yang was getting frustrated. These stodgy Lan were intractable over their rules and he was feeling a little pissed off. First, he, in no way, was going to allow Lan XiChen to die, not for a long time. He had decided he wanted his toy back and the excitement the thought brought was irresistible. Second, he needed to play along with their unbearable restrictions and demands until he could spirit his plaything away.